Food from the Garden, Driveway Repair and Thankfulness

Too much rain, not enough warmth, but the garden is starting to come through.

 

Although my lettuce seems super-slow this year, and none is ready to be picked quite yet, I harvested some nice salad greens yesterday.  Wasabina, arugula and mizuna mustard.  Added to a local organically grown salad mix I purchased at our Co-op, the greens are being enjoyed.

 

Also in our salads are scallions and radishes from the garden.  The first picking of strawberries yesterday was only one pound, seven ounces, but it's a start.

 

Using two cups of those berries, I couldn't resist making the first Strawberry Cream Pie of the season.  (Too bad nobody likes it.)  The remainder of the berries are ready for eating with milk (or maybe cream) later.

 

I've hilled up the potatoes with more soil twice now, but the heavy rains we're continuing to have are washing my efforts away.  I hoed the soil back up and then laid some old straw I had over the mounds to hold the soil in place.  I sure hope that helps since more rain is coming again this week.

 

Speaking of way too much rain, our good neighbor was here first thing this morning to see what repairs we might need on our driveway.  Some folks have had their gravel drives wash out twice now making them impassable.  Ours has held up remarkably well with only a couple of spots showing minor run-off ditches.  That has a lot to do with this same wonderful neighbor who put our driveway in over 20 years ago and keeps a careful eye on it for us.

 

Even with the occasional troublesome weather (drought last year, followed by very little snow in the winter months and now flooding this year) we are blessed, in many ways, to have our little homestead in the area we do. 

Lotsa Garden Pictures

Papa Pea finished the huge job of mowing today.  Yes, we absolutely have to wear our bugshirts when doing ANYTHING outside.  I've said it before, but I'll say it again.  The biting bugs are horrendous this year.  Ugh.

 

I put eight full trays of mint in the dehydrator today.  That's the first cutting of mint for the season.

 

One of our peony bushes has a gazillion (okay, only half a gazillion) buds on it this year.

 

And look what I cut to bring in today.  (The blooms are FULL of ants!)

 

Checking out the strawberry patch, I found many plants with lots of developing berries on them.

 

And one beautiful berry that is already ripe.  The very first one always goes to my husband as strawberries are his most favorite fruit.

 

About every four years I lose my senses and try planting corn.  Again.  This isn't a good picture, but I got 100% germination on the four 12-foot rows planted.  Now if we have warm enough weather and the stalks don't get flattened by some of our crazy wind storms . . . 

 

I just hilled the potatoes up for the second time and they're lookin' good.

 

As with the corn, every few years I pretend I'm Ruth Stout and try planting a few potatoes under straw mulch.  So far, this method seems to be doing what it usually does for me.  Only half of the eyes  have popped up with sturdy green vines.

 

A week ago, I planted seeds for some mini pumpkins, little things only 3" across that I would like for fall decorations, next to each side of the garden trellis.  Seed packet says germination should take place in 7-14 days.  Nuttin' yet.  (The garden soil looks cracked and dry, but right beneath the surface it's quite moist as we've had many cool and wet days.  That could be slowing up the sprouting of the seeds, too.)

 

Shell peas are coming along.  Slowly.  (So are the rocks.  Always the rocks.)

 

The cabbages are growing great.  Both the green and red ones.

 

That's all for now.  More to come if all goes well.  Some sprouts are so small yet they're not ready for their close-ups!  

Asparagus Explosion

We had an inch of rain overnight and into this morning.  Apparently the asparagus patch loved it.

 

I was sure I was harvesting about twenty-five pounds of it, but when I brought it in the scale read only six and a half pounds.

 

A hefty harvest, for sure, even at that.

 

Fresh asparagus at our local co-op is currently selling for $6.99 a pound.  That makes today's bounty at our little homestead 'round about forty-five dollars.

We'll take it!